Fayette | News

Horgan should resign, say 7 former county commissioners

Tue, 06/23/2009 - 4:12pm
By: John Munford

Seven former Fayette County commissioners are formally asking sitting commissioner Robert Horgan to step down from his post in light of his May 23 arrest for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and driving with an expired tag.

Signing a letter seeking Horgan’s resignation were former commissioners Harold Bost, Bill Bonner, Grace Caldwell, Greg Dunn, Peter Pfeifer, Rick Price and Linda Wells.

The letter, provided Monday to The Citizen, cites Horgan’s May 23 arrest as “an embarrassment for our community” and suggests Horgan should resign.

“With this letter we respectfully ask Commissioner Horgan to put an end to this most difficult situation,” the letter stated. “We believe that his behavior has rendered him incapable of governing effectively and he has lost the confidence and respect of the vast majority of the electorate.”

Horgan was arrested by a Fayette County sheriff’s deputy May 23 after he was pulled over for the expired tag violation. The deputy smelled the odor of marijuana and after first denying it Horgan admitted to smoking a joint while driving in his company’s white pickup truck.

Since his arrest, Horgan has been asked to resign by fellow commissioner Eric Maxwell and also by a number of citizens who have confronted him during the public comment portion of commission meetings.

Horgan has attended and participated in the two regularly-scheduled county commission meetings since his arrest, and at the first such meeting he announced his intention to remain in office to regain the public’s trust.

The former commissioners’ letter says that trust will never be regained. Moreover, the commissioners suggest the county could incur more negative publicity with pending public hearings concerning the matter and a potential recall action “which will continue this theater for some time and cause increased work for the elections office staff and further expense to be borne by Fayette taxpayers.”

“By associating with the criminal element in the illegal drug trafficking business and his personal possession and use of illegal drugs to include his admitted driving while smoking marijuana, Mr. Horgan has shown little or no regard for his oath of office, the county ethics ordinance, and federal and state laws,” the letter stated. “Further, his public refusal to resign his position indicates that he is not aware of the increasing degree of disapproval, disappointment and disgust that his behavior has caused our citizens.”

Two citizens recently filed an ethics complaint against Horgan that could lead to a fine of up to $1,000 and or a public reprimand; the complaint will be investigated by county attorneys selected from nearby jurisdictions.

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Look Who's Talking
Submitted by Save Fayette on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 10:26am.

How ironic, if I recall these are the same commissioners that have been trying to
Run the county even when they where Voted out of office. Greg Dunn; he lost to Eric Maxwell and could not take it anymore and tried to run against Horgan and lost!!
Peter Phifer who lost to an ex-county employee hands down. Linda Wells thought she was gods gift to Fayette Co. and thought she could come back to the county and become our tax Commissioners, (remember she was the commissioner who was hiding in her house when Fayette Co Sheriff tried to serve her a warrant, who lied on the stand and said she did not know who was knocking at her door.) The three of them cost the County over $500 thousand is attorney fees fighting with the Sheriff. Rick Price tried to save the hide of the 5th commissioner McNally. Then the ring leader of them all Harold Boost, Citizens don’t forget; Boost was booted out of office because he lied about his residence, he said he lived in Fayette Co. but had residence in Fl. This cost the Citizens of Fayette Co. well over $100 thousand for a special election. Then he started FACOG, if you look up the charter date for this so called political action group it was during the election. He had given the max amount of money to Greg Dunn, Wells and Phifer that he had to have a way to help his buddies out. That was why FACOG was started. Just a way he could support his good old boys back into office and have a way to get around the rules. This was only a letter written by there ring leader. They all have been against Horgan since he was elected, they have there own agenda. Lets move on and let the process work

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Save Fayette, Don’t forget Grace Caldwell
Submitted by PreciousStahr on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 12:21pm.

Tyrone has had to endure this former Fayette Commissioner on its Council for 4 years. Grace Caldwell is up for reelection this year and wants to jump on the “get rid of Horgan” bandwagon, as though she really cares.

Grace should resign herself for failure to speak out and try to get back the $54,000 the GBI recently uncovered that was illegally taken from Tyrone’s public funds by former Town Officials.

The audacity of this hypocritical politician to try and gain favor with voters on the Horgan issue, while not minding the store in Tyrone. It makes me want to throw-up.

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EndtheProhibition
jway's picture
Submitted by jway on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 5:11pm.

A bigger embarrassment is for these commissioners to feel the need to speak up over this incident but to have no similar compulsions as an average of 17 people are murdered every single day at the hands of the Mexican cartels!

Where were they last year as more than 6,000 people were brutally murdered to protect the cartel's marijuana profits from the U.S.? Where were their calls to legalize the production and sale of marijuana in the U.S. in order to undercut the cartel's prices and drive them out of business?

Apparently the death of 6,000 people wasn't enough to rouse them from their silence, and the death of almost 3,000 people this year had no affect on them either. But oh my, one commissioner gets caught smoking a joint and they are loud and they are active and they are passionate in their calls for action. Shame!


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Re : EndtheProhibition
Gene61's picture
Submitted by Gene61 on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 5:56pm.

Simple soultion, STOP BUYING/ USING THE DRUGS TO BEGIN WITH! Supply and demand has lead to the current sitaution..Horgan is buyer/user, so you can say in essence some of those deaths are on his hands as well!

look at the whole issue, stop cherry picking the points that support your position..


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How do you know this?
Submitted by Spyglass on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 6:02pm.

How do you know he was a buyer? There are more folks growing their own than you realize.

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Spy, Horgan should be made to disclose where he got the pot
bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 7:42pm.

If he says he grew it then he should have to prove it. That should be fun.

If he purchased it, then we can blame him for some of the 6,000+ dead in Mexico, as per jway above, and then charge him with murder.

As for your claim of him growing his own I find it odd that he would remember to water his plants and not remember to pay his tag tax.

Typical of a drug addict!


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I disagree Bad PTC..
Submitted by Spyglass on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 2:54pm.

Unless things have changed, we have laws in this Country against incriminating yourself. Are you saying we should change said laws?

Honestly, is it still bothering folks that we have a sitting Commissioner who has been accused of TWO misdemeanors?

I see my pot stirring worked well. Pun intended. Smiling

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Spy, I believe Horgan can be made to sing
bad_ptc's picture
Submitted by bad_ptc on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 5:37pm.

TITLE 16. CRIMES AND OFFENSES
CHAPTER 10. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
ARTICLE 3. ESCAPE AND OTHER OFFENSES RELATED TO CONFINEMENT

O.C.G.A. § 16-10-50 (2008)

§ 16-10-50. Hindering apprehension or punishment of criminal

(a) A person commits the offense of hindering the apprehension or punishment of a criminal when, with intention to hinder the apprehension or punishment of a person whom he knows or has reasonable grounds to believe has committed a felony or to be an escaped inmate or prisoner, he:

(1) Harbors or conceals such person; or

(2) Conceals or destroys evidence of the crime.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of hindering apprehension or punishment of a criminal shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

This tactic is often used in drug investigations as a means of getting to the 'bigger fish' as it were.

Local law enforcement can have all kinds of fun with Horgan if they want to.


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Bad_PTC
NUK_1's picture
Submitted by NUK_1 on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 8:09pm.

That section refers to convicts, escapees, and people who have already engaged in felonies. In Horgan's case, no one knows whether he bought it, someone gave it to him for free or in trade, he grew it, etc. He doesn't have to say anything, which is a major point of the 5th Amendment. He's charged with a MISDEMEANOR. Who cares where he got it from? What if the dealer is in Atlanta? Do the cops in Fayette place an an urgent call to ATL PD to let them know that some dude in their city sold a Fayette dude what appears to be a small amount of pot? Do the cops sweat drunks who get a DUI about which liquor store it came from? Do they interrogate him at length to determine if he's making moonshine and evading state taxes and regulations on making your own liquor?

Yes, getting the user to tell the authorities where they got their drugs from works in the user escaping harsher punishment while some replaceable-within-hours dealer gets the rap, and works so well that the drug problem in the USA is completely out of control and the prison system overloaded with non-violent people and the enforcement/punishment industry bloated beyond belief. I can't think of a tactic that has failed worse in the drug war than getting people to "tell" on their drug dealer. There is an overriding financial motive for drug dealers and the world makes a lot of people who would rather take the shortcut and high risk to make "easy money" selling dope. Let's see: fry cook or dope slinger? I bet McDonald's has a harder time finding people to cook fries than drug operations do in finding someone to sell dope on the street.


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Bigger Fish?
Evil Elvis's picture
Submitted by Evil Elvis on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 7:58pm.

Some brutha with a white T-shirt that is six sizes too large selling weed in College Park is a bigger fish than a local elected official?


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